Trauma cases depleting resources for prostate cancer in Westmoreland
Published:Tuesday | September 20, 2022 | 12:08 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
A Westmoreland-based general surgeon is lamenting that the high number of trauma cases – especially victims of crime and accidents – at the Savanna-la-Mar Public Hospital in Westmoreland is affecting the facility’s ability to treat patients suffering from prostate cancer.
Speaking during an panel discussion in observance of Prostate Cancer Awareness Month on Sunday, Dr Lincoln Cox said that many prostate cancer patients end up suffering in silence at home because as they miss out on medical attention.
“With the uptick in gun crimes and mostly penetrating injuries that we get in Savanna-la-Mar, the resources of the hospital have been used up mostly in dealing with these issues,” said Cox during the online forum.
“ ... We see a lot more patients with trauma, and then we have patients with colon and breast cancer. We see prostate cancer a lot, but we tend to refer them to the urologist in Montego Bay and to the Cornwall Regional Hospital,” added Cox, explaining that trauma cases take up most of the available space, leaving a limited number of beds to accommodate prostate cancer patients, especially those with just mild symptoms.
“We tend to try and manage them on an outpatient basis, and a lot of these patients are coming from places where transport is not very easy to get to Savanna-la-Mar,” said Cox. “In our surgical outpatient clinics, we do not see the majority of these patients, and I am sure these patients are suffering at home quietly.”
Cox’s revelation comes at a time when roughly 250 prostate cancer cases have been listed for surgical attention among the 590 backlogged elective surgery cases to be done in western Jamaica. Those cases are among 6,000 elective surgeries islandwide which had been delayed from as far back as March 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
According to the Ministry of Health & Wellness, there were 1,561 new cases of prostate cancer in Jamaica in 2020. It is recognised as the most prevalent cancer in the country and the leading local cause of cancer-related deaths in men.
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It is estimated that four out of every five Jamaican men with prostate cancer are diagnosed at age 65 or older, while 304 out of every 100,000 adult males in Jamaica will be diagnosed with the disease.
“I just want to encourage men and women within the parish of Westmoreland and the wider Jamaica to encourage the men around them to live a healthy lifestyle and not only to seek help when having symptoms or having pain. Start with regular exercise, as the Ministry of Health has a campaign now that you should try to do 60-minute exercises every day, at least three days a week, and also you need to watch your diet,” said Cox.
Consultant urologist Dr Roy McGregor, who also participated in the panel discussion, said it is important for men to not shy away from the digital rectal examination, a crucial part of the screening process to detect prostate cancer.
“A lot of people will think they can do the PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test and avoid the physical examination, and that is not correct, and the reason is that the more aggressive a cancer cell gets, the less like a prostate cell it is, and paradoxically it produces less PSA. In people with a family history, they tend to get more aggressive cancers, and 10 to 15 per cent of people with prostate cancer will have a normal PSA,” said McGregor. “It is important that people do not use the PSA alone as a screen for prostate cancer; you must have the prostate examination as well.”